Rally for Indigenous Rights at the Supreme Court!

Wed Nov 30, 2016, Ottawa, ON

***Français à suivre***

On November 30th, on unceded Algonquin territory in Ottawa, Clyde River Inuit and the Chippewas of the Thames First Nation are heading to the Supreme Court of Canada to uphold the legal right of Indigenous Peoples to be consulted on energy projects that will impact their communities.

A win at the court could be a watershed moment for the future of Indigenous rights and environmental justice. We need YOU to be there to show your support for Indigenous communities fighting on the front lines of fossil fuel extraction.

**Given the limited amount of seating available inside the Supreme Court, settlers and allies should refrain from entering and allow priority to be given to community members. Alternative viewing options will be arranged.

Clyde River, an Inuit community on Baffin Island, is protesting dangerous oil exploration in their waters. A five-year oil exploration project in Baffin Bay and Davis Strait (off Clyde River’s coast) has been approved by the National Energy Board (NEB) without Inuit consent. This project allows seismic blasting — a process of firing loud sound explosions through the ocean to find oil — as a first step towards dangerous Arctic oil drilling. Oil industry activities like seismic blasting seriously threaten Inuit food security by putting at risk the Arctic animals they depend on for their very survival. Two years ago, Clyde River filed a legal challenge against the seismic companies, the NEB, and the federal government for failure to consult. On November 30th, the Supreme Court of Canada will hear their case. Find out more here: https://www.facebook.com/Unite-Against-Seismic-Testing-1391093554253151/

Chippewas of the Thames First Nation (COTTFN) is going to the Supreme Court of Canada to assert their rights as an Indigenous community. The community, near London, Ontario, is challenging the Canadian government to recognise and uphold the Crown’s treaty obligations with regard to an industrial project on their traditional territory. Their court case comes as a response to the failure of the Canadian government to consult Chippewas of the Thames First Nation on Enbridge’s Line 9 pipeline reversal project which went online last November and is set to transport tar sands dilbit. Despite a complete lack of consultation with Chippewas of the Thames and the community’s objections to the project, the Canadian government allowed the project to go ahead, breaching their duty towards Indigenous nations as outlined in the Canadian constitution. Find out more here: https://chippewassolidarity.org/en

The stakes for both of these cases are really high. These cases could decide what Indigenous consultation on proposed energy projects looks like, hopefully shaping the future of energy development in Canada and beyond for the better.